When
yet another local pastor was caught in the fowler's snare (quite publicly
at that), I listened to a righteously indignant young parishioner insist
that it was an absolute lie to accuse his pastor of having misbehaved
grievously while in a Florida public bathroom. I listened with deep-felt
sadness, remembering a similar experience years earlier, when my own pastor
was exposed for equally egregious behavior-also in secret, also engaged
in over the course of many years. Prior to documented proof, followed
by admission to guilt, I, too, could not get my mind around the facts.

No
way! It's a lie! I won't accept that a man of God is guilty of such things!
Someone set him up! The devil's attacking him with false accusations!
The mainstream news media is on the warpath! Anything-anything-but
the shameful, painful truth.

All
the while this zealous young Christian "stood tall" in his belief that
such things could never be true, and no one could convince him otherwise,
I prayed in my heart that his love, devotion, trust, and understanding
would be redirected-not to a man on what appeared to be a shaky pedestal-but
rather to the God of his salvation.

Having
walked with God most of my life, I am never surprised at what the flesh
is capable of doing. Nor is God for that matter. King David himself was
guilty of adultery, murder, and cover-up. Once exposed,
he accepted guilt and paid a dear price for it; but then with humility
and remorse threw himself on the mercy of God, pressing into His love
and forgiveness. As such, David was a man after God's own heart, as the
Bible declares him to be.

God's
Surprising Expectation of Me

A much
revered man of God once asked the question of Billy Graham's daughter,
Ann: "What does God expect from us?" As a "preacher's kid," Ann raced
through the possible answers. He expects us to pray without ceasing, witness,
tithe, read the Bible, live uprightly. Ann's list was endless.

But,
then, the answer came as a total surprise. What does God expect of us?
According to the pastor-teacher, it is summed in one word-namely, failure.
God expects us to fail. That, my friend, is why He sent His only begotten
son to die for our sins. Face it. Apart from divine enablement, we "cannot
keep ourselves an hour clean." All have sinned; all fall short. Yet we
have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

Next
question: Shall we continue in sin so that grace may abound? God
forbid. Without fail, our sin will find us out. Moreover, there is a price
to pay, even after our sins are brought to light, repented of, and subsequently
forgiven. The saying goes, "As the tree is bent, so does it grow."

Grace
Lightly Esteemed

Years
ago, a friend of mine had served in Louisiana on a powerful, but diverse
ministerial team. It was there she linked arms with a newly redeemed,
middle-aged man manifestly full of joy and zeal for the Lord. Having spent
most of his adult years in sexual perversion, he had irreversibly mutilated
his own body to become someone different from who he was created to be.
Even so, God's bountiful grace found and saved him from a life of degradation.
Though the residual of a bent lifestyle clearly revealed from whence he
came, this man radiated love for his newly-found Savior.

Some
time later, my friend heard grievous news that this man had returned to
the filth of his previously sinful lifestyle. Stunned, she cried out,
"Lord, how can this be? I was into drugs and promiscuity when you found
me." "He fell. Might I fall, too?"

Fear
gripped her until the still, small voice of God directed my friend to
the Bible. There, she read verse after verse about the reverential fear
of God. How its presence sustains us all the days we live on earth. How
it forever ensures our well-being (and that of our children), so that
life in His kingdom is prolonged; and our souls shall dwell cleansed and
at ease.

The
reason is simple for a believer's falling and, then, continuing in hidden
sin. It is failure to fear the most High God. In reverential awe of her
Creator, my friend found a place of refuge wherein she was strongly confident
that evil will not visit her. Most assuredly, fearing God is the beginning
of wisdom.

Sin's
Gruesome Wages

Some
three years ago, while at the bedside of my dying husband, I was similarly
impressed by the gruesome process of death, declared by God to be the
certain "wages of sin." I pondered not so much my husband's sins (they
were forgiven and washed far away as East from West), but rather sins
of mankind in general; indeed, my own sins.

Unpleasant
as it was, I once again examined my heart while considering the Lord's
great pain in knowing each and every choice of disobedience. I contemplated
how sin never fails to reap what it sows. In the end, it truly does earn
the disagreeable wages of death. For these reasons, I reaffirmed my lifelong
need to take heed, remaining sober and vigilant at all times, lest I too
fall from grace.

This
mandate applies to the young, the old; the weak, the strong; the rich,
the poor; the famous, the infamous; the boy, the girl; the man, the woman-and,
yes, the pastor, the layperson. Whenever a fellow believer falls (even
an ordained minister of the Gospel), I best face the truth head-on, not
practice the deceit of cover-up. At the same time, I turn from view of
another's spiritual nakedness, even as Noah's sons turned their faces
from the physical nakedness of their drunken father.

So
Then…

Only
God can cover and remove the stain of sin. Even so, I can-and will-proclaim
good news. The unwelcome wages of sin is death, but then the free gift
of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ His son.

God
expects me to fail; it's my very nature. I need only to repent and turn
to Him. However, once forgiven, if I take lightly the manifold grace of
God, I am in jeopardy of being as the proverbial dog turning back to its
own vomit.

On the
other hand, if I practice fearing God-that is, in a spirit of reverential
awe-I become as the righteous man of Proverbs who, though he falls seven
times, nonetheless picks himself up again.

As was
true the day I sat with an irate parishioner in utter disbelief of his
pastor's alleged misdeeds, I pray in my heart again today as yet another,
very visible member of our beloved family has been found out, so to speak.

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Nonetheless,
I take hope in the grace and mercy of God, trusting not in the arm of
flesh, but instead in the God of my salvation. The church will weather
this storm, and our Lord will be found victorious. Clearly, not because
of us-but because of Him. Therefore, take heart, fellow believers. Weeping
endures but for the night, and joy comes in the morning. Count on it!

Daughter of an
Army Colonel, Debra graduated with distinction from the University of
Iowa. She then completed a Master of Education degree from the University
of Washington. These were followed by Bachelor of Theology and Master
of Ministries degrees-both from Pacific School of Theology.

While a teacher
in Kuwait, Debra undertook a three-month journey from the Persian Gulf
to London by means of VW "bug"! One summer, she tutored the daughter of
Kuwait's Head of Parliament while serving as superintendent of Kuwait's
first Vacation Bible School.

Having authored
the ABCs of Globalism and ABCs
of Cultural -Isms, Debra speaks to Christian and secular groups alike.
Her radio spots air globally. Presently, Debra co-hosts WOMANTalk
radio with Sharon Hughes and Friends, and she contributes monthly commentaries
to Changing Worldviews and NewsWithViews.com. Debra calls the Pacific
Northwest home.